Africans know this route very well. Their sit-tight rulers usually begin by amending the national constitution to remove term-limits or to add obnoxious provisions, which underscore their selfish interests. Some eagle-eyed politicians in Burundi do not want President Pierre Nkurunziza to toe this line. “This unilateral process to amend the constitution reflects the will of President Nkurunziza to govern for life through a constitutional monarchy type system,” reads a letter dated 8 November, 2017, signed by Nestor Girukwishaka, on behalf of Agathon Rwasa, Evariste Ngayimpenda, members of the Amizero political coalition and Juvenal Ngorwanubusa, the Chairman of MRC-Rurenzangemero party.
These politicians have drawn the attention of the mediator in the Burundi crisis, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, the UN Secretary-General and the Chairman of the African Union Commission to the danger of allowing the President to amend the basic law.
They said that during the Cabinet meeting held on 24 October, the government authorized the commission to amend the constitution. Philippe Nzobonariba, the spokesperson for the government claimed that the Council of Ministers adopted it and gave permission to the commission to move on to the next step. “Out of 307 articles in the current Constitution, 77 will be amended, 3 will be completely removed while 9 new others will be added”, he said.
He decried the replacement of the presidential term limit of two five-year terms by a seven-year tenure that could be renewed once. For the politicians, this is a dramatic step for our country and the sub-region. It is a bad precedent for the whole world. “The amendment to the constitution definitely suspends the Arusha Agreement,” he said. He described the change of the constitution as the violation of the rule of law.
In case the constitution is amended, these opponents believe that the ruling party would have all the levers to impose its will. “What would prevent the ruling CNDD-FDD from permanently omitting any reference to any politico-ethnic power sharing and causing the irreparable damage?”
For this reason, they have called on the East African Community, the African Union, the United Nations and the entire international community to use all their powers to prevent the government of Burundi from amending the constitution. The opposition politicians pointed out that “As a product of a political and social consensus, the Arusha Agreement and the resulting Constitution cannot be revised on the initiative of the ruling party only”.
